Ticket 2 Ride

Barbra Streisand writes like she talks, or so I imagine. As I read the words, I hear her talking, and I catch myself speeding up to match her fast-delivered movie dialogue. This is a 900-plus page book so I’ll need to pace myself and use my inhaler.

My Name is Barbra (2023, Viking) is an engrossing read. Love her or hate her; Streisand is a fascinating person. On changing the spelling of her name: “Then it occurred to me that I could just take out that middle a in Barbara. Now I’d be Barbra… that was different and unique. I liked the way it looked too … and down deep I would still be the same Barbara Joan Streisand, if you see what I mean.”

Streisand is a direct and opinionated person. Shocking, I know. She is also a complex person, which is also not surprising. Streisand gravitates toward things she can control (she’s usually correct in her vision and choices), while the inner child craves acceptance and praise. That’s a repeating theme in the book. She barely knew her father, he died young, and her mother scrubbed any memories of him (“I didn’t want you to miss him.”). In her own words, she needed what he could no longer provide her, and she kept waiting anyway.

Few people have a life that needs 900-plus pages; Streisand does. The problem I had, the book alternates between too much detail on certain events or interests; and too little information on some of her recordings, films and people in her life. Perhaps that’s a quibble, but there were subjects I looked forward to reading.

Forgettable: Former boyfriend Jon Peters, producer Ray Stark, former manager Sue Mengers.

Best parts: The movies (most of her movies, anyway), her romance with James Brolin, recording with former Bee Gee Barry Gibb.

The best was getting to know the person behind the fame and the larger-than-life personality. Her personality clouds, but never obscures her talent, first as a singer, then as an actress.

We learn two things that deeply defined her: Her father’s death, and the coldness and resentment by her mother. “What did I have to do to get her attention and approval? No wonder I wanted to become an actress. It was a way to escape myself and live in someone else’s world.”

“I never knew my father. Years later I realized that when my father died, I didn’t lose only him. My mother left me emotionally as well. I asked her once, when I was an adult, why she never hugged me or showed me any affection or said words like I love you. ‘I didn’t have time,’ she replied.”

Later on, her mother’s resentment of Streisand’s fame and accomplishments boiled over: “…when I rushed in I saw all these women in shock because my mother was yelling, ‘Why are they honoring her? Why aren’t they honoring me? I’m the mother!’ It was surreal.”

Streisand also wrote that he hated her stepfather: “I didn’t like the way he mistreated my mother. And he never spoke to me.”

One man who was present in her life was her grandfather, at least until his death. “I loved my grandpa. His affection saved me.”

Streisand had an awkward marriage to actor Elliott Gould, awkward in their contrasting careers and internal struggles. Gould remains a presence in her life, a co-parent to their son.

If you are looking for a list of her boyfriends, many are listed. I got the feeling her years with Jon Peters were more difficult than she described, but that’s my guess.

Here are a few passages from the book that surprised me:

“I wasn’t scared to sing in front of people anymore. It was only later, when I became more successful, that I got more and more frightened. I had nothing to lose when I was young.”

“I had already been told by several people that I should get a nose job and cap my teeth. I thought, Isn’t my talent enough? Eventually I grew into my face, I guess.”

“I’ve always been proud of my Jewish heritage. I never attempted to hide it when I became an actress. It’s essential to who I am.”

Streisand occasionally veered toward contemporary pop, embracing it for an album or a film, then heading back towards more comfortable territory: Broadway or the Great American Songbook. I enjoyed those flybys into pop, but it seemed her strength and heart were in the “classics.”

Her record label wasn’t impressed when she handed them an album full of show tunes or Tin Pan Alley songs. They wanted contemporary songs, like the Barry Gibb written and produced album Guilty.

“I really responded to these songs, in a way that I never did to the latest hits on the radio, Streisand explained about preferring the older songs. “I wanted to know more about them, so I looked them up and found out they all came from Broadway shows. Maybe that’s why I liked them… because they were sung by a character and came out of a story. The song was not just a song. The play gave it more context and meaning.”

Streisand was an astute businesswoman, certainly knowing what she valued most:

“In exchange for less money up front (from Columbia Records), I got creative control, which was more important to me than anything else.”

“Marty (her manager) made a deal with CBS to make TV specials exclusively for them…this particular deal remarkable was that he negotiated the same key clause that he had fought for in my recording contract…I would have creative control.”

On adding film director to her career:

“I’ve said that I became a director out of self-defense, and it’s true. Nobody was offering me roles. I swear, people were frightened of me.”

“I can get completely entranced by the editing process. It’s my favorite part of filmmaking, actually. It’s fascinating, the way you can fine-tune an actor’s performance.”

The lengthy read is worth it. I admit there were a few sections I skimmed, but I got the gist of those. Barbra Streisand is not for everyone, but there is a lot for even the casual fan. The challenge is, there’s a lot!

4/5